Before visiting his cathedral, all I knew about St. Vitus was that there is a disease named after him, St. Vitus dance, otherwise known as Sydenham chorea, in which the patient makes jerky movements that look vaguely like some sort of dance. It turns out that St. Vitus dance is a sign of acute rheumatic fever and occurs mainly in girls before puberty.

Stained glass windows in St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus himself was a saint from Sicily about whom little is known, except that he died as a martyr in the year 303. By some accounts he was a seven- or twelve-year-old boy when he was killed.

The St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague is within the castle walls. It is included circuits A and B, and the “Treasure of St. Vitus Cathedral” is a major feature of circuit C.

In earlier years it was possible to enter the cathedral without a ticket and just stand in the back behind the pews, which is what a lot of people did. But behind the last row of pews there was a barrier where you had to show your ticket to go further. (Perhaps someone can tell me if this is still true today?)

GPS 50° 5’26.20″ North; 14°23’59.65″ East

My photos in this post are from 2011. I revised the text in 2019.

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